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On September 10th, Google launched an online tool that can estimate the carbon footprint of a city. The tool estimates carbon emissions from all the buildings and transportation in the city. In addition, the tool evaluates the rooftop solar potential of the city buildings. The tool is called the Environmental Insights Explorer and was created in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The purpose of Environmental Insights Explorer is to help cities estimate their carbon…

Private transportation companies gather a lot of data about transit patterns of citizens. This data could help local authorities shape good transportation policies. But once the data is in possession of the local government authorities, the data becomes public property. Anyone can request access to this data and that could create some security and privacy issues. Therefore, a policy is needed that will regulate transit data sharing. New challenges “We have a responsibility to understand what…

The term 'playable cities' describes an urban design approach that seeks to put playfulness and entertainment in outdoor daily life activities. Playing is especially important for children. Physical activity and brain stimulation help children to stay healthy and develop skills like creativity and critical thinking. Nowadays, parents work long hours, children have school, homework and other activities. All this leaves less time for parents to take their children to playgrounds. But a proper urban design can create opportunities to play…

Geoff Boeing, Urban planning professor at Northeastern University, has developed a tool to visualize the consistency of a city's street network. Boeing's tool calculates what percentage of a city's roads run along each section of a compass, and plots it on a circular bar chart. A similar concept was created recently by data scientist Seth Kadish. Let us look at how the tool works on two examples - the Manhattan island and Boston. Streets on…

City of Toronto and Sidewalk Labs joined forces in October 2017 on a project called Sidewalk Toronto. The goal of the project is to create a modern, sustainable and dynamic neighborhood on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront. The new neighborhood will be called Quayside. At a roundtable meeting on 14th and 15th of August, the leaders of the project presented some of the proposed design features to the public. Let's look at the five of the most…

Over the last two decades, Vancouver has put a complete streets design principles into action and the city is already seeing the benefits. Complete streets design policy Complete streets is a transportation policy and design approach. It requires streets to be planned and operated in a way that enables safe and comfortable travel and access for all users - for those who are walking, cycling, driving automobiles, riding public transportation, or delivering goods. Complete streets design approach includes adding…

Increased use of autonomous ride-sharing cars is expected to reduce the need for parking spaces in the future. Therefore, it is wise to design today's parking garages in a way that they can be easily transformed into offices, shops or even housing. “Future-proof” parking garages “Within a decade, certainly within two decades, the demand of parking is going to radically change. These buildings that we’re putting up are going to last more than two decades,” said Thomas Fisher, director of…

Two previously industrial areas in Sydney are undergoing enormous urban development. One area - Coal Loader Platform - became a public space for meeting, resting and recreating. The other area became a multi-residential development called Eve Apartments. These projects demonstrate how to create a new and improved environment with inventive urban greening. The Coal Loader Platform The Coal Loader Platform is located on the western side of Sydney’s Waverton peninsula. This area was dedicated as…

New eco-friendly, sustainable building materials have emerged to reduce the environmental impact of building construction and operations. To determine how eco-friendly a certain building material is, we must consider several factors. For example, materials that are locally sourced don't use a lot of energy for transportation. The durability of material is another factor. Materials that have to be replaced frequently, are obviously not eco-friendly. Another criteria is the embodied energy of…

Urban planners today aim to create compact, transit-oriented urban landscapes. In his blog post, Michael Lewyn, assistant professor at Touro Law Center in Long Island, explains that there are two options to achieve this goal. Tall buildings or ...? Many cities are facing a growing number of new residents. That means that more housing is needed. At the same time, cities should be dense enough that public transport can be efficient. One way of achieving this…